Setup Preparation

You will most likely have your WordPress admin dashboard open while you configure and test various things. So it is a good idea to use two different browsers for the testing. Use one browser (example: Google Chrome) to open your WordPress admin dashboard and use the other one (example – Firefox, Microsoft Edge) to simulate a visitor. The reason is that the temporary login information is stored in the browser’s session, so having two different browsers to do two different things is ideal and will avoid any login conflicts due to shared session.

Also, check the plugin testing checklist to avoid any common mistakes

Simple Registration Test

The simplest way to test the WP eMember plugin after you set everything up is to allow free membership and then visiting the registration URL to sign up for a free membership account. Here are some guidelines:

• Create a post or page calling it “Free Member Content” and put some random content in it.
• Create a Membership Level called “Free Membership” giving it access to the site’s content (posts, pages etc)
• Now go to the “Manage Content Protection” menu and select the “Free Membership” level from the drop down.
• Give this membership level access to the post “Free Member Content”.
• Go to the settings menu and make sure the “Allow Free Membership” field is checked and the “Free Membership Level ID” field has the correct ID of the “Free Membership” level.
• Now if you open a new browser window and try to access this “Free Member Content” post without being logged in as a member you should see something similar to the following screenshot:

• Follow the “Join Today” link and go to the registration page to register for a free membership account.
• Once you sign up use the “user name” and “password” for your free membership to log in.
• If the login operation is successful you should see the content of the “Free Member Content” post/page.

This indicates that the content protection, member registration and login functionalities are setup correctly and it’s working fine.

Now you can take the testing one step further and try a test transaction by purchasing one of the paid membership (if you offer paid membership) to see how the paid membership registration part works.

Paid Membership Test

Note: Enable the debug logging feature in the plugin settings before running a payment test. The debug log file will help identify any issues if the test does not proceed as expected.

An easy way to test the paid membership flow is to do a live transaction with something like a $1 (you can change the price of the membership after the testing).

• Create a membership payment button in the plugin for a small amount (example: $1). This documentation explain how to create a membership button for PayPal.
• If are testing a new user paying for a membership scenario then make sure the email address you are going to use for the transaction isn’t already in the system. Go to the member’s menu and search for it to see if a user account already exists with that email address. If a member account exists then delete it before you do the transaction.
• Do a transaction using your credit card (for example). You can refund that transaction after the testing is done.

The Typical Member Registration Flow article is a good resource to read.